Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Himalayan Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucogenys) is a species of songbird in the Pycnonotidae family. If they are mixed with humans from a young age, they will become friendly to humans. It is found in the northern regions of the Indian Subcontinent as well as some adjoining areas. It is found in Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan. It is the national bird of Bahrain.

The Himalayan Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucogenys) is a species of songbird in the Pycnonotidae family. If they are mixed with humans from a young age, they will become friendly to humans. It is found in the northern regions of the Indian Subcontinent as well as some adjoining areas. It is found in Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan. It is the national bird of Bahrain.

Friday, April 26, 2013

The Pied Bush Chat (Saxicola caprata) is a small passerine bird found ranging from West and Central Asia to South and Southeast Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognized through its wide range with many island forms. It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey. They pick up insects mainly from the ground, and were, like other chats, placed in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now considered as Old World flycatchers. They nest in cavities in stone walls or in holes in an embankment, lining the nest with grass and animal hair. The males are black with white shoulder and vent patches whose extent varies among populations. Females are predominantly brownish while juveniles are speckled.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The dramas of Sankaradeva and his chief disciple,
Madhavadeva, as also other successors of theirs, are known popularly as ANKIYA
NAT and called yatra, nata, nataka or nritya in the text itself. In their
performances, these dramas are mostly dance and music, interpreted with very
short dialogues and connected with explanatory matter (SUTRA – KATHA) from time
to time. As a dramas they are a type by themselves, and do not follow any
model, Sanskrit, Prakrit or otherwise. There is no Act or scene division in
them; most of the dramatis personae enter the theatre (thatis, the oblong space
available at the middle of the thatched prayer- house in maths), surrounded
almost on all sides by the squatting audience, at the very beginning (in the
evening of show); and the action sweeps on at a stretch till the end is reached
(near about dawn). There are no background scenery (although Sankaradeva is
said to have introduced them in his very first dramatic performance); time and
distance are indicated through songs and dances. The sutradhara or sutadhari,
taken originally from the classical Sanskrit drama, dhemali, looking like a
clever popular translation of the Sanskrit term, purvaranga) are over,
announces the drama and conducts the whole show with dances, songs and
explanatory commentary. The songs, dialogues and explanatory matter are all in
artificial literary idiom, which has since been called Assamese Brajabuli,
being a queer mixture of Assamese, Maithili, Hindi and other elements.

These
are intervened only by Sanskrit verses and, rarely, Early Assamese payara with
a plaintive motif. The written text of the drama begins with a nandi
(benediction) in Sanskrit, announcements of the name and theme of the piece to
be presented, bhatima (panegyric) of the hero, and an extremely short dialogue
between the sutradhara and a comrade in the style of amukha or prastavna of Sanskrit
dramaturgy. The introductory songs (pravesagita) then usher in the hero, the
heroine and other characters in appropriate dance compositions. And the real
action now begins. The drama closes with a mangala or mukti-mangala-bhatima
wishing everybody general welfare and the attainment of final beatitude; and
this is comparable to bharata-vakya of classical dramas.

Sankaradeva wrote six plays
which are still extent and are performed : Patni-prasada, Kali-damana,
Keli-gopala, rukminiharan, Parijata – haran, and Ramavijaya. Madhavdeva
composed Arjuna-bhanjana, Chordhara, Pimpara- guchuwa, and Bhumi-lutiwa, three
other plays also being ascribed to him : Rasa-jhumura, Bhusana-haran and Kotora
–khelowa.

The representations of dramas are popularly known as Bhawana
or bhaona (Skt. Bhava, representation; bhavayati; Assamese, bhao di, to act or
take part in a dramatic performance). The performances of Sankaradeva’s or
Madhavadeva’s dramas are known as ankiya bhaona, representations of other
dramas in the same grand style are also known by the same name, but even the
later Vaishnava dramas differed in language and mode of performance from the
ankiya mode, and came to be known as simple bhaona.